Sunday, January 4, 2015

Mars Attacks! US Troopers Painting Tutorial 2.0

After the original tutorial was destroyed by The Dark Symmetry, I've finally gotten around to rebuilding the Mars Attacks! US Troopers painting tutorial. Hopefully this version survives.

This wonderful Mars Attacks! image (above) was the reference material I used for deciding how I wanted to paint the US Troopers. I chose to make the tactical vests, gloves, and boots a coyote tan colour to add a little bit of visual variety to the figures. I also wanted to give them the amber ballistic eyewear as it adds some nice contrast.
1. After cleaning flashing and straightening bent parts, prime the figures with Skeleton Bone from the Vallejo Air Primer range. While sometimes just a light dusting of a paint coat can suffice when priming, for our purposes here ensure that the figure is thoroughly painted with Skeleton Bone. It will act as both the primer and our basecoat, so it will be important that the figure is evenly coated with no plastic showing through.

2. Paint stripes in a random arrangement using Citadel's Warboss Green. Make sure the paint is watered down so it won't create a raised texture. Once The Warboss Green stripes have dried, repeat the step using Straken Green and then again with Steel Legion Drab. The bases were done by painting the base with the Astrogranite Texture Paint, which was then drybrushed with layers of Dawnstone, Fenris Grey, and Praxeti White. Paint the outer ring of the base with Abaddon Black.

3. Paint tiny dots in arrangements of one, two, or three spots in a triangular pattern using Rhinox Hide. Ensure these are adequately spaced out (see pictures for size and spacing reference). Repeat this step with White Scar also maintaining spacing to avoid excess spots.

4. Paint the helmet band, chinstrap, gloves, tactical vests, and boots with Steel Legion Drab. Let it dry and then apply a light drybrush of Ushabti Bone. Then basecoat the exposed flesh with Bugman's Glow. Once everything has had time to dry, apply a thin coat of Agrax Earthshade.

5. Basecoat the weapons Abaddon Black. When the basecoat is dry, drybrush a 1:1 mix of Eshin Grey and Abbadon black followed by a light drybrush of Eshin Grey onto the weapons. Wash the weapons with Nuln Oil. The face was basecoated with Bugman's Glow.

6. The goggles were basecoated with Magic Blue from the Vallejo Air range. Highlight one corner with Electric Blue from the Vallejo Air range, and then with a 1:1 mix of Electric Blue and White Scar. Again, make the white dot on the opposite corner of the lens.

7. Once your wash has dried, layer the exposed flesh with Cadian Flesh, making sure you leave a tiny bit of the Bugman's Glow and Agrax Earthshade Wash visible. Highlight the raised areas of the face such as the nose and cheekbones with Kislev Flesh. Apply White Scar for the eyes followed by tiny Abaddon Black dots for the pupils.

Other Equipment

Highlight the bottom corner of the eyewear (the glasses) with Troll Slayer Orange, and then a tiny bit of 1:1 mix of Troll Slayer Orange and Flash Gitz Yellow. Then, in the opposite corner make a tiny White Scar dot to show the light reflection. The goggles were done in a similar manner. Highlight one corner with Electric Blue from the Vallejo Air range, and then with a 1:1 mix of Electric Blue and White Scar. Again, make the white dot on the opposite corner of the lens.
The missile launcher was painted with Waaagh! Flesh and was highlighted with Warboss Green. I then washed it with Agrax Earthshade. I used the same technique for the ammo box on the light machinegun.